Rick Perry's wife bucks the trend as Republican spouses hold back their men

It could be that 2011 will be looked back on as the "year of the wife" for Republican politicians contemplating running for the White House.

Mitch Daniels, the Indiana governor, opted not to seek the Republican nomination because his wife Cheri, who had divorced and later remarried him, and their daughter were opposed to the idea.

A few weeks before Governor Haley Barbour decided not to run, his wife Marsha told a local television station that her husband running for president "horrifies me" and would be "overwhelming" and a "huge sacrifice".

Senator John Thune of South Dakota is said to have taken himself out of contention after his wife Kimberley read the 2008 campaign book Game Change, which gave chilling details of the of the brutal nature of presidential campaigns .

It contained scenes of marital discord and dysfunction and was "a downer" for his wife, Mr Thune pointed out as he was weighing his decision. "It was not helpful," he said.

Mike Huckabee's wife Janet was also said to have been less than him keen on running. The former Arkansas governor stayed out.

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Rick Perry's wife Anita is known to be an enthusiastic backer of his candidacy. But she was initially not eager to be a political wife. In his book "Fed Up!" he wrote that when he decided in 1983 to run for the Texas state house, days after their son Griffin was born, she was not especially encouraging.

"I was getting restless with life on the farm. Anita saw how much I wanted to do this. After all, she knew what Perrys did: they ran for office."